The basic question is simple: how well did the choices made promote the common good? The answers, however, are complicated and contested, since the common good is far from self-evident. Catholic Social Teaching can help, as it provides five sound, relevant, and quite practical principles of economic justice.
COVID-19, for all the ‘We’re all in this together’ sentiment, has illuminated the extent to which we are not: disproportionate numbers of BAME people are dying, and we see higher mortality rates in areas of densely-packed housing and in areas of long term, multi-generational deprivation. By itself, the term ‘interdependence’ masks entrenched and systemic inequality.
